As an ex-pot-smoker, it took me several months to finally get my act together and unearth some powerful techniques to aid in the quitting process. Most believe that willpower alone is all you need to stop smoking cigarettes or to rid your addiction.

Although will power sounds like a nice thing to have, what exactly is it? Is it an unseen force that we can all call upon on demand? How come some people can summon more of it than others?

I believe will power isn’t an unseen force or mystical power, in fact I believe that willpower is the same as creating a decision. You make countless decisions on a daily basis, some decisions that you make are larger than others. For example, it doesn’t really matter that much if you put your hair in a bun today or whether you leave it loose.

However what about the decision to go to work today or not? Now this has a larger impact on your entire day. You never know – it might be that you get caught taking a day off work and the consequence is that you get fired! That one decision to have a day off then rippled through your life causing various different effects.

Similar with making a decision to give up weed, you have a ripple effect. By not smoking today, you will experience an effect or outcome because of it – which might be as bad as an argument or as good as some positive praise from family and friends.

The first step I took to quit my pot addiction was to make the decision! This is critically important. Most people make a half hearted decision to quit smoking weed and then relapse soon after. It is this half heartedness that really does the devastating damage because there is resistance to doing it.

It’s like saying …

I want to quit smoking pot, but I like the feelings it gives me.

I want a new job, but I don’t think I’ll get a new one.

I want more money, but I don’t deserve it because I don’t do anything!

If you attack quitting smoking weed with resistance then you will fail and relapse. You’ll just a quickly be able to justify why you can smoke and why you should because that firm decision was not behind you.

My advise would be to make the decision and instead of looking for excuses and reasons as to why you cannot quit. Make a list of all the reasons why you can give up, why you should give up and why you want to give up.

I often have readers write in to ask my advice on special quitting techniques for those who have been smoking pot for 10, 20 or even 30 years or more. After smoking more than half their lifetimes, many of these people find that they are suffering health problems such as breathing difficulties, throat cancer or infertility. Others are simply tired of feeling like garbage all of the time. Others still feel that they have missed out on so much that at this point in their lives, they have a lot of making up to do.

Just as there are so many different motivations for quitting, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for beating the cravings and complications a long-term marijuana addict must face. Each person started smoking pot for their own personal reasons, but more importantly, they had their own reasons that kept them doing it for so many years. A stop smoking program must also be tailored to their unique needs.

Quitting marijuana after a long-term addiction is more than simply stopping an activity. Smoking weed is a lifestyle. It affects everything a marijuana addict does, from the moment they wake in the morning to the minute they finally pass out stoned at night. Long-term addicts make friends with other pot smokers – it’s just easier to surround yourself with people who are okay with what you’re doing twelve hours of the day, isn’t it?

They have special places to go on their break from work to smoke up. They routinely smoke a joint after work to release the stress of the day. They have one after supper to unwind and relax. These are the habits that are so hard to let go of. Over the years that a person is addicted, marijuana infiltrates every aspect of their life, becoming intertwined and associated with everything they do throughout the day.

This is the biggest hurdle the long-term marijuana addict must face. How can you possibly quit when every single thing you have done throughout the day over the last twenty years reminds you of how much you want to smoke a joint? How can you explain to your pot smoker buddies that you can’t be around them any more when they’re just doing what you’ve all done together for the last few decades? How can you possibly wake up every morning to face the cravings you are sure to endure all day long?

Long-term marijuana addicts have a long, hard road ahead of them when they plan to quit. However, the rewards of successfully quitting are also exponentially greater. I’ve spoken with recovered marijuana addicts who, one year after smoking their last joint, now feel and look fifteen years younger. They often feel as though they should have quit years ago.

There are effective treatments and supplements that you can take to control the urge to smoke marijuana, however not everyone can afford to go to a rehab clinic or fork out hundreds of dollars for craving supplements that may or may not work.

This is where Emotional Freedom Technique (or EFT) comes into place. It is free, quick, easy and very effective at stopping cravings of all kinds including craving to smoke marijuana joints.

So what is EFT?

EFT is in simple terms, a method to break habits. By applying pressure on certain areas of your body whilst thinking about your craving you can reverse this craving for whatever it is you do not want. The technique is also used to send positive affirmations to your subconscious mind. The technique looks very strange but it is very simple to do and very effective. I would recommend everyone try this technique as it is so simple to achieve results.

What you will be doing is tapping with our fingertips on certain key points of the body. Just before tapping and during tapping you should concentrate on your craving. For example, if you wanted to smoke a joint, you would think about smoking a joint and imagine yourself already smoking a joint.

It’s very simple stuff and can be performed by anyone. Results are instant and the whole process should not take you more than 3 minutes to complete.

Often when people give up smoking cannabis, a massive hole (or void) is made within themselves. They are left with a feeling of depression and emptiness. It’s like something is missing. Something you love has now disappeared and you feel sadness because you want that feeling back.

Truth is you don’t actually want marijuana back, but you do want the FEELING that marijuana gave you back.

I get a lot of emails from users saying they are finding it difficult to cope with this change their body is going through. My advise for this problem is always the same …

Learn something new.

You see you feel like your missing out on something. Something has gone, its vanished off the face of the earth and you want it back. Well instead of going around in a hopeless loop and ….

giving up then smoking a few days later,
giving up then smoking a few days later,
giving up then smoking a few days later,
etc

Try and fill The Void! As an ex-user myself I know exactly what it is like and today I am going to share with you the exact thing that I used to fill my void with. There’s two things actually.

1. Golf. I absolutely love playing Golf and because I was a stoner I never played as much as I liked to. So when I gave up smoking cannabis I went and played Golf several times per week. I got two great benefits from playing Golf. Firstly, I was outdoors taking some well needed exercise which also helped me to sleep at night, and secondly it was filling The Void.

2. Think and Grow Rich. Have you never heard of Think and Grow Rich? If you haven’t you’re in for a special treat today. This is a phenomenal book that gave me added passion to give up smoking but also to better myself in all areas of life. It picked me up from the ashes and slapped me around the face. It gave me purpose to my life and introduced me to a world that I never knew.

I couldn’t possibly do Think and Grow Rich justice by writing about it in this blog, so you must go and download your FREE COPY right now and read it for yourself. The author Napoleon Hill was a wonderful sharing person and he shared this brilliant book with us back in the 1930’s. It’s power and potential is simply mind blowing.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.